Diet Review: 10 Minutes to Thin?

Wednesday

Apr 24, 2013 at 11:27 AM

Former Fat Girl Lisa Delaney’s diet review of a weight loss plan based on 10-minute workouts.

Spry editor Lisa Delaney is one of the rare souls who know what it’s like to be an “after.” This journalist and author of Secrets of a Former Fat Girl shed 70 pounds—and six dress sizes--and has kept it off for 20 years. She answers your questions here each week.
DEAR READERS: I get tons of questions about specific weight loss plans, so I thought I’d do a series of diet reviews based on the latest and/or most popular regimen. Here goes.
The plan: The Thin in 10 Weight-Loss Plan, by Jessica Smith and Liz Neporent
The premise: This book builds on the current buzz around “exercise snacking”—splitting activity into 10-minute increments—and broadens it to encompass a meal plan as well comprised of breakfasts, lunches and dinners, all of which can be prepared in 10 minutes.
Key details: The authors not only make a quick—but strong—case for the benefits of 10-minute workouts, but manage to provide fairly targeted advice for people of varying fitness levels. They start with an assessment questionnaire that helps the reader determine her/his starting point, and then prescribe one of four regimens, each of which involves some combination of walking workouts and the authors’ creative yet easy-to-follow routines, each focusing on a different purpose (core, cardio, strength, etc.). (The book features five workouts, and a bonus DVD—yes!—provides five more.) They even divide their walking workouts into three styles with speed and form modifications that allow readers to plug in at their level and advance to the next. The Thin in 10 eating plan suggests a reasonable 1,300 to 1,500 calories per day for women (1,800 for men) and not only urges readers to prepare their own meals (instead of going out) but makes it easy for them.
Quick cautions: The recipes do use some convenience products like prepared pasta sauce, cooked chicken strips, and even instant potato flakes, but it’s all in the spirit of sticking to that 10-minute time frame for prep. (Some recipes do call for light butter and—gasp—light margarine, which saves few calories and seems unnecessary.)
FFG fave? Yes! I love the creativity of the workouts (and plan on stealing some for my own regimen), the obvious attention to providing as much individualized fitness guidance as possible, and the accessibility of the plan.
Lisa Delaney is editor of Spry magazine and Spryliving.com. Ask her your question here.
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